Banana Tarte Tatin with Malai Ice Cream

by Nadiya Hussain from Time to Eat: Delicious Meals for Busy Lives (Penguin/Michael Joseph) Photography: Chris Terry

Malai ice cream is a subtly scented milk-based ice cream that you can find in South East Asia and often here too. This is my no-churn version - it goes really well with the sweet tatin, but will also go further, leaving enough for a few extra desserts.

Preparation time: over 2 hours Cooking time: 30 mins to 1 hour

Serves 6, plus extra ice cream

Ingredients

For the ice cream

1 x 397g/14oz tin condensed milk

500ml/18fl oz double cream

5 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed

For the tarte tatin

1 x 500g/1lb 2oz block puff pastry

100g/3½oz brown sugar

75g/2½oz butter

30–50g/1–1¾oz chopped hazelnuts

4 or maybe 5 bananas, sliced into 2cm/¾in coins

Method

1. Make the ice cream first. Put the condensed milk, cream and crushed cardamom seeds into a bowl. Whip until thick and at soft peak stage, then transfer to a freezer-safe tub and level the top. Place inside a ziplock bag and freeze.

2. Now for the tarte tatin, preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and have a 23cm/9in oven-safe pan at the ready.

3. Roll out the pastry to a 1cm/½in thickness, then cut out a circle about 2cm/¾in wider than your pan. Pop it on a baking tray and leave it in the fridge while you make the caramel.

4. Put the sugar and butter into the pan, and when the sugar dissolves, turn up the heat and allow the caramel to get dark and thicken. Lift the pan and give it all a little swirl occasionally. The main thing is to watch it until it is a deep caramel colour, because once it gets to that point it can burn quickly. Take off the heat and sprinkle on the hazelnuts

5. Add the bananas to the caramel, then lay the pastry on top and gently lift and tuck it around the sides of the pan, being careful of the hot caramel. Cut a slit in the top for the steam to escape, and bake for 25–30 minutes.

6. Let it stand for at least 20 minutes after it comes out of the oven. Then turn it over onto a serving plate and serve with the ice cream.